Gallant sought to survive with a minority government by adding many of the opposition’s campaign promises to his party’s throne speech earlier this week, but his party’s fate was sealed Thursday when both the Tories and People’s Alliance said they’d vote to defeat it.

During his speech today, Gallant acknowledged the weeks since the deadlocked election had been “challenging,” but said voters called for a change on how parties govern.

He called for an “agenda of collaboration” no matter which party governed, and admitted he had sometimes fallen into the old partisan ways as premier.

He said it appeared the election results — which saw the Liberals dominate the largely francophone north and the Tories and right-of-centre People’s Alliance do better in the mostly anglophone south — suggested the province is divided along regional and linguistic lines.

But he said people should not be taken in by those apparent divisions.

“What binds us together is greater than what drives us apart … We’re all New Brunswickers.”